Below is a recap of this week’s legislative activity in the Senate. It
covers votes by the full Senate and a look ahead.

The highlight was Senate passage of legislation to reform our public
pension systems, which are driving up taxes and draining public resources.

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Senate Approves Public Pension Reform Measure

Recognizing that increasing public pension costs are creating an
unsustainable burden on state government and local school districts, the Senate
approved a reform measure Wednesday that is projected to produce $18.3 billion
in savings over 30 years.

Senate Bill 1, which I am co-sponsoring, restructures the state’s two public
employee pension systems – the State Employees’ Retirement System and the Public
School Employees’ Retirement System – in order to make them viable in the long
term.

The features of Senate Bill 1 include:

All new state and public school employees will be enrolled in a
401k-type Defined Contribution Plan similar to those used by private sector
workers.

Members of the General Assembly, upon election or re-election, will be
enrolled in the same Defined Contribution Plan as state and public school
employees.

Current employees will be able to choose to increase their pension
contribution or lower their future benefits.

No changes to current retiree benefits.

A Public Pension Management and Asset Investment Review Commission made
up of investment professionals and retirement advisors will be established
to make recommendations to the General Assembly and the Governor. Among
their duties will be to evaluate the performance of current investment
strategies and procedures of both state retirement systems regarding rates
of return and associated fees paid for fund management.

Skyrocketing pension costs are driving up school property taxes and draining
resources from classrooms, and prompted the Governor’s call for unprecedented
state tax hikes. I hope the House of Representatives now addresses it with the
same urgency as the Senate.

Watch– Speaking on the floor of the Senate, Senator Mensch outlines the scope of
the pension crisis and calls for colleagues to take action.

Senate Approves Medical Cannabis Bill

The Senate on Tuesday approved legislation that would legalize the use of
cannabis for medical purposes.

Senate Bill 3 would allow individuals who suffer from certain medical
conditions to apply for a medical cannabis access card from the Department of
Health. A licensed health care practitioner would be required to provide written
certification in order for an application to the Department of Health to be
considered. The legislation creates a new Board of Medical Cannabis Licensing
within the Department of State that will be responsible for regulating growers,
dispensers and processors.

Senate Bill 3 now goes to the House of Representatives for consideration.

Senate Approves New Motorcycle License Plate to Support Veterans

The Senate approved legislation Tuesday intended to help needy veterans
through the sale of a special motorcycle license plate.

Senate Bill 284 authorizes the special “Honoring Our Veterans” license plate
for motorcycles and
Senate Bill 285 allocates a portion of the funds raised through sales of the
plate to the Veterans Trust Fund. The trust fund assists veterans in need of
help with food, utilities, mortgage or rent payments, health care and other
necessities of life.

Legislation I introduced to promote early detection and treatment of prostate
cancer was approved by the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee on
Tuesday.

Senate Bill 609, the Prostate Cancer Surveillance, Education, Detection and
Treatment Act, will improve public awareness of the prevalence of prostate
cancer and measures available to detect, diagnose and treat it and related
chronic prostate conditions. It is also intended to ensure that:

Medical professionals provide patients have sufficient information about
treatment options to enable patients to make an informed choice as part of
informed consent and to respect the autonomy of choice; and

The legislation directs the Department of Health to establish a 19-member
task force on prostate cancer and related chronic prostate conditions to
investigate and make recommendations.

Prostate cancer in Pennsylvania has similar incidence and mortality numbers as
breast cancer. In the past year, over 10,240 men were diagnosed with prostate
cancer. That's 28 men per day in our Commonwealth. An additional four men will
die from prostate cancer every day, adding up to almost 1,300 men per year.

Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer diagnosed in Pennsylvania men.
African-American men are 61% more likely than Caucasian men to be diagnosed with
prostate cancer and twice as likely to die from it.

I re-introduced legislation this week supported by the Pennsylvania Breast
Cancer Coalition that would require insurance plans to provide coverage for
breast density screening.

Dense breast complicate early detection of breast cancer. Women who have
extremely dense breast tissue are up to six times more likely to develop breast
cancer.

Mammogram films of breasts with higher density are harder to read and
interpret than those of less dense breasts. Breast density is one of the
strongest predictors of the failure of mammography screening to detect cancer,
with a mammogram missing at least 40 percent of tumors in women with the densest
breasts. Both cancer and density appear white on a mammogram so detecting tumors
is much more difficult in denser breasts without further screening provided by
an ultrasound or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Senate Bill 842 would amend the Insurance Company Law of 1921 to extend
mandated insurance coverage to ultrasound screening and magnetic resonance
imaging if a mammogram demonstrates heterogeneous or dense breast tissue, or if
a woman is believed to be at increased risk for breast cancer due to family
history or prior personal history of breast cancer, positive genetic testing or
other indications.

I previously introduced this legislation in tandem with a bill that became
Act 86 of 2013, requiring heath care facilities to notify women when
screening indicates dense breast tissue.

Up Next

The Senate returns to voting session on Monday, June 1. You can watch
session live at
PASenateGOP.com.

Twitter and Facebook: I post regular
updates on legislative action, committee developments, useful state-related
information, happenings in the 24th Senatorial District and more on Twitter
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